The Internet is a well-known collection of public and private data communication and multimedia networks that operate using common protocols to form a world wide network of networks. Recently there has been an explosion in the availability of online services, e.g., online commerce sites, email sites, news information sites, and so forth, all reachable over the Internet. This rapid growth is due, in part, to the availability of fast, reliable and affordable computing device systems and the general simplification of networking hardware and configuration. Thus, consumers and businesses alike now have access to hardware that makes effective online commerce commercially practicable.
To access these online services, an online service provider typically sets up a home page (e.g., “web site”) on the World Wide Web, which is a logical overlay of the Internet. Simply, web sites are machines located someplace within the Internet with traditional naming conventions for the machines, e.g., named WWW, and holding themselves available to interact using standard protocols such as Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), and programming languages or environments such as Hypertext Transfer Protocol HTML, XML, Java, JavaScript, Java Beans, ActiveX, Visual Basic, or the like.
To access a service via a web site, a user executes a “browser,” such as the Internet Explorer, Netscape Navigator, or other network aware application program that is configured to communicate with an online service provider's web site. The user locates a particular online service provider, and proceeds to logon to the web site (or equivalent) to access and utilize the service. At this point, the user must enter their logon identification (Id), password, and other data sufficient to identify the user and allow access of the user to the service.
As the user accesses several services, the user is required to maintain several logon identification and passwords. For example, a user may request to access several services such as Hotmail® for email services, HomeGrocer.com® for home delivered groceries, Washington Mutual Bank™ for online banking, and so forth.
Often times, in order to keep track of the different logon Ids and passwords, a user may try to use a common logon Id, such as “Justin”, and password for several services. However, more than likely, a logon Id for one service is rejected by another service because of the likelihood that some other user would have the same logon Id is high unless one constructs an arbitrary user Id. In that case, the user Id is difficult to remember and user unfriendly. Depending on the number of services utilized by the user, the user may be required to have and manage numerous different logon Ids and passwords.
One known method for managing the several different logon Ids and passwords is to store this information within the computer or device for accessing the various services. However, because this information is stored within the device, if the device is altered and/or loses its memory or the user roams to different devices, the user is required to repeat the process of setting up the several logon Ids and passwords in order to access the different services again. Further, the user would not have access to his/her configuration information.
Thus, what is needed is an environment that provides a user the ability to access online services requiring logon Ids and passwords and roam from one device to another without having to manage several logon Ids and passwords, nor several sets of configuration information.